The Hollow
by Majin Blake
Summary: After a number of heroes and villains wake up one by one in a strange and dangerous land, they come to find out that only through learning how to work together and coexist will allow them to be able to survive and escape. If they can manage that, then perhaps even a few odd bonds and romances may bloom along the way. -Lots of different ships and fluff over time
1. Chapter 1

_This story takes some elements from The Maze Runner (which I've never seen/read before), and Shadow Of The Colossus (which is one of the greatest games ever), and it ta_ _kes place the day after the Fall of Beacon... kinda-sorta... you'll see._

* * *

The loud, discordant turning of old gears and the steady rumbling of the hard floor stirred Weiss awake.

It was pitch black. Attempting to blink away the darkness, she couldn't even see the surface of whatever she was lying face-down on, and her body felt the sensation of its gravity being shifted as if she was going up on some kind of an elevator. She lifted herself up just off the ground with her forearms, and the front of her entire body's bare skin clung to it.

She was… _naked?_

This was bad, as waking up in a foreign place without clothes usually was.

Weiss sat up on her knees and fought back a sudden, dizzying urge to vomit. Her head was pounding, body weak and laden with partly-dried sweat. Swallowing down the wave of nausea and rising to her feet with trembling legs, her hands floundered through the darkness searching for any kind of clue and came to find themselves resting on something firm.

Was it some kind of hardened plastic? Fingers scoured the object, exploring the top flat surface of it that met curved edges. _'… It's just a big box,'_ she concluded in thought after examining it.

Her head perked up as voices emanated from above outside of… wherever she was. Instinct compelled her to call out, "Hello?"

She cursed herself for making noise after waking up in a strange place, which she knew never to do after seeing so many horror movies. Weiss focused passed her extraordinary headache and strained to make out the indistinct words.

The muffled conversation seemed to be getting closer, almost clear, until she was able to discern one sentence with clarity, louder than the rest, "It's coming, everyone turn around!"

Weiss took a defensive stancte and steeled herself, making a promise that she was going to make whoever was lying in wait to ambush her very, _**very**_ sorry for choosing a Schnee as their target…

The elevator came to a slow stop and she felt her stomach almost float away.

The arched covering of her tiny dome-prison began to peel away back into the ground with a mechanical hum as the cool air and blinding light of the day poured in. It was far too bright to see through after having just been confined to darkness for who knows how long. She brought an arm up to shield her eyes.

She heard a surprised gasp and a light patter of quick footsteps approached across grass, then concrete, and a familiar, albeit slightly deeper, voice rang out, "Weiss!"

The heiress was hit by a force of what felt like someone running full speed and wrapping a heavy blanket around her, trapping her arms and pulling Weiss into a crushing embrace. Squinting through the brilliant radiance of the sun bearing down upon her, she pulled her head back just enough to get a look at who was assaulting her.

"Ruby…?"

Ruby squealed with delight, "Ohhhh, I can't believe it, I haven't seen you in foreverrrrrrr!"

In her irritated state, Weiss had half a thought of slapping her partner right then and there for being so dramatic. "What are you talking about? I just saw you yesterday." The dark haired girl didn't budge however, and only tightened her grip, wiggling her from side to side. Weiss felt a deep blush overtaking her face, "Ruby, I am _exceedingly_ nude right now _,_ get off of me!" In an increasing desire to reclaim her personal bubble, she shouldered Ruby to the ground, eliciting a pained grunt, while managing to keep the blanket bundled around herself.

Her icy glare dropped down to her partner, and then to the girl's hair that had somehow grown a ridiculous length overnight, coming down to rest on her bust. "Ruby, what in the world happened to your hair?... And… just what exactly is going on here?"

With her eyes finally adjusting enough to the light, she scrutinized the platform she had been delivered on. It was just a plain, circular slab of concrete for an elevator, probably about 8 feet in diameter if she had to guess, surrounded by another outer circle of the same nature, then green grass at the rounded edges where it sloped downwards. "Where are we?"

As Ruby stood up, the heiress lifted her confused gaze and finally took notice of what she had failed to realize. Standing before them was a small crowd of people looking on, separated into smaller groups and all wearing the same dark gray uniform with a simple, purple stripe across the chest.

Weiss's eyes darted between all the faces in a panic… Sun and Neptune, that one dumb brute named Cardin, Jaune and Nora beaming a smile up at her, the entirety of team CFVY, Yang… oh lord why in the world was she missing an arm?... an unfamiliar, tall faunus with red hair and horns (who seemed like he might be giving her a vague scowl, but she wasn't sure as he was wearing a black blindfold) and a younger woman she didn't recognize, and… _Roman?_

She blinked once. Then twice.

What was _he_ doing here? The man who had tried multiple times to murder them in the past was just standing around so casually and... without his hat. Roman merely returned her incredulous look with a smirk and a wink.

Weiss felt a blazing anger rising within her from seeing his _stupid_ , smug face and his _stupid,_ dumb hair and his _stupid,_ damn-

Her inward ranting trailed off as her focus drifted passed him to what would have been a magnificent sight had she not been freaked out or standing in front of so many people… naked.

Apparently sprawling in all directions from the platform she was standing on, a plain of grass extended out about an eighth of a mile until it reached a massive, textureless metal wall that stretched across the entire way around them, enclosing them in a giant open-ceiling stadium. Embedded in the wall were, what seemed to be, a large number of gigantic doors evenly dispersed along three quarters of the dome's edge.

Turning her head to scan the entirety of the wall, she counted twenty-one doors in total. The first two entrances going counter-clockwise were already slid open vertically. Between the first and last door was a tiny forest behind a few buildings that looked incredibly primitive. Had they built those? Just what exactly was going on there?... And here… well, everywhere.

Just trying to absorb and make sense of her surroundings left Weiss overwhelmed, and brought back that lightheaded feeling of nausea.

Her head had already been spinning when hands on her shoulders twisted her around to face Ruby. " _Therrrrrre_ is a lot of stuff I need to explain to you," she offered with a sympathetic smile.

However, Weiss was unable to articulate any kind of response as the words didn't register. Instead, she ended up lurching forward and throwing up all over her partner's shoes. She could barely make out several disgusted and surprised groans from the crowd as Ruby jumped backwards with a shriek.

"Ha! See, Nora," Yang started, "told you Weiss would be the first to blow chunks. Now pay up!"

Nora tossed her hands in the air, letting out an exaggerated, disappointed whine.

* * *

The walk to, what was apparently going to be, Ruby's cabin took an eternity. Making her feeble march in the blistering heat was made only slightly more bearable by her partner rubbing gentle, soothing circles on her back, but less bearable by Yang's incessant gloating over having won some bet.

"And then _I_ said, 'no way, Nora. Weiss even threw up once when Zwei shit in her bed!'"

Trying to ignore the blonde, Weiss gave a side-eyed peek up to Ruby. Why did she seem so tall now? The girl somehow had a few inches up on her. The heiress looked down to see if she was wearing platform boots, or something of the height-increasing nature, but only reminded herself where her vomit had landed. Ruby was walking barefoot now after having to toss her puke-riddled shoes elsewhere. Weiss shook off a guilty blush creeping up her cheeks.

Off to the side and slightly behind the house they were approaching, something caught her eye. A small cross sticking out of the ground above disturbed dirt gave her already-shaky body a shiver throughout. There was little doubt in her mind, it was a grave.

Weiss breathed out a sigh of relief as they finally reached the cabin. Pulling open the wooden door, she stepped inside and plopped down on the first available seat, a wooden chair in front of a bed. Still grasping the blanket firmly around herself, Weiss peered around the basic, square, one-room building.

Wood… the whole place appeared as though it was poorly constructed out of wood by someone who was enlisting the help of a do-it-yourself booklet but didn't know how to read. A bed was pushed up against each of the left and right walls at the headboards, untucked with thin sheets, and a chair next to each.

Weiss looked up to the sisters standing around awkwardly in front of her, "Can I have some clothes?"

Ruby's eyes lit up and she reached behind herself to produce a small pile of clothes seemingly out of nowhere. She outstretched her hands to the white haired girl, offering the garments with a toothy smile.

The heiress simply raised a suspicious brow at the clothes that seemed to match everyone else's. "Where did you get these?"

Yang stepped forward, "From the supply box you came with." She lifted her hand to point a thumb backwards as if it were right behind her.

Sparing the blonde a scowl, Weiss took the offered clothes and examined them briefly. Unremarkably plain, dark gray colored long sleeve shirt with the same purple stripe across the middle of the chest, and pants, underwear, and black tennis shoes. All of it was obviously made by someone with no sense of fashion whatsoever. She loathed the idea of wearing what looked like a high school's tracksuit uniform, but knew she wasn't really in any position to deny them. "Can I have some privacy?"

Ruby and Yang exchanged uncertain glances and shrugged before peering around the room, presumably looking for anywhere to go in the small cabin. Ultimately, they opted to simply turn around.

Weiss rolled her eyes, " _Outside, please."_

Yang snorted and gave her sister a light nudge of her elbow before receiving an annoyed shove to her side and they exited out the door.

After Weiss had finished dressing herself in the suspiciously fitted clothing and retaken her seat, she announced her decency and her teammates reentered while Yang was snickering and whispering something about 'the ice princess.'

The missing arm of Yang drew Weiss's attention as she stepped back in. Just above the elbow a clean cut had been made, though, oddly enough, it had somehow healed an extraordinary amount in such a short time... How was that even possible?

Snapping herself out of her thoughts, she realized she was gawking and then met eyes with the blonde.

"You can't see it, but I'm giving you a thumbs up," Yang said with a grin, lifting the nub of her arm at her.

Embarrassed from being caught staring, Weiss quickly redirected her gaze to Ruby who was trying and failing to stifle a giggle. Not only was her hair longer, but her face seemed thinner. Her voice was a little different too, perhaps deeper? No, 'matured' was a better word. How did her leader manage to seem so different in such a short amount of time? Somehow, her new look made her seem charming. Though Ruby always had a certain charm about her, this was different, she was almost… Weiss shook her head and sharply brought her focus back to the situation at hand.

A hundred insisting questions wracked her mind, all demanding to be asked, but there was one burning inquiry that she needed an answer to immediately, above all others, "Did you get hair extensions without consulting me first? Because they look awful."

Yang immediately burst out into a laughing fit while Ruby stood playing dejectedly with a strand of her unkempt hair, "They're not extensions…" Ruby muttered mostly to herself.

A few successive knocks on the already open door caught their attention and Jaune poked his head in, "Uhh, hey guys." He gave a quick wave. "How's the conversation going?"

Ruby nervously rubbed at the back of her neck as she glanced over to Weiss. "Umm, we haven't really started yet."

"Oh… _Wellllll,_ can I help?"

Yang wore a smirk, " _Tch_ … And how are you gonna help?"

Crossing the threshold of the doorway and softly letting it close behind him, he puffed out his chest and straightened up into a more confident posture at the inquiry of his potential services. "Moral support? Maybe a shoulder for Weiss to cry on?"

Weiss narrowed her eyes, shooting Jaune a pointed look, but noticed that maybe he looked a little different as well.

Yang cocked her head to the side, putting her hands to her hips and raising a brow in suspicion, "You mean like when the grimm attacked and you ended up crying on Ren's shoulder?"

His frame slumped, feeling the low blow, "That was one time, and I told you, there was dirt in my eyes!... What about that one time I took down that pack of deathstalkers single handedly?"

"Yeah, the _baby_ deathstalkers?"

"There was a lot of them!"

"I… think there was three," Ruby softly interjected, holding up the appropriate amount of fingers.

"But they were still kind of big!"

Weiss pinched the bridge of her nose with her thumb and forefinger, frustration compounding, "Will you all please stop spouting nonsense and just tell me what is going on?"

"Oh… right," Ruby acquiesced. "Well, what do you remember from before you got here?"

"What do I remember?" Weiss scoffed, tossing her hair over her shoulder. "I remember we were at school…" She furrowed her brow in concentration, arms crossed and gaze focused on the floor.

What _did_ she remember? It was all so hazy. Stills of images from the previous night flashed through her mind and her eyes flew wide open. "… Beacon was attacked," she whispered in disbelief. Weiss was at a cafe with Blake watching the match between Penny and Pyrrha when…

She shuddered and pushed the picture of a dismembered Penny aside.

Weiss strained herself, reaching further into her head for anything else that would come back. More memories of the night revealed themselves to her, the sight of her injured team lying on the ground. "… Blake was hurt… Ruby and Yang were unconscious," Weiss returned her gaze to the blonde's missing limb, looking it over intensely, "Your arm…" Weiss didn't know what had happened to them exactly, only that Yang had gone off to look for Blake, and they both returned in very bad shape. "The last thing I can recall was that I had just received word that my father was coming to take me back to Atlas… And that was it…" She let out a distressed sigh. "But that still doesn't explain any of this."

"… Well," Ruby hesitated and averted her gaze. She scrunched her lips into a thin line and fidgeted with her index fingers, rhythmically poking them together. "The thing is, we don't really have much of an explanation for _why_ we're here… This place, those huge doors out there… everything here feels like one big test that we have to pass."

The dark haired girl's eyes met icy blue once again and she continued with a cautious tone, as if afraid to further annoy the heiress, "The first door was already open when I got here, so, naturally, I investigated. There was a small plain in there, and there was this _huge_ grimm that walked on two legs wandering around…" She stretched her arms up in the air to emphasize the size of the grimm. "It was terrifying and exciting to see for the first time."

Ruby raised a hand to point towards the back of the house. "And, there was this weird thing in the forest out back, it was like some creepy shrine or something. There's twenty-one sockets in it and, in the middle, it just says, _'The Titans' Eyes,'_ " She droned the last part for dramatic effect. She crossed her arms, displaying a pensive look. "Twenty-one sockets, twenty-one doors… I figured it could only mean one thing, but there was no way I could take it on my own..."

After a moment of silence, the leader's mood seemed to perk up all at once, "Oh! But then, more people started to show up - like Jaune!" Without looking, she stuck her finger directly in his face, narrowly missing his nostril as he casually tilted his head back. "And then _more_ people showed up and we took the Titan thing down and we put its eyeball-gem-thing in the socket thing and the next door thing opened and ohmygoshWeissitwassocoolyoushouldvebeenthereeeeeee!" She paused to take a deep breath " _… And then- "_

Weiss shook her head and slammed her eyes shut in a frown, tuning her partner out for the sake of her growing headache. Unwilling to even entertain such a ludicrous concept, her mind jumped to the possibility that she was being toyed with and her eyes flung back open.

' _Yes… that must be it,'_ she thought. This was _just_ like them to do this!

They all must've thought they were so hilarious, pulling a ridiculous and elaborate joke over on the heiress like this. How much time and effort did they put into this whole thing? Well, it mattered little now because she was very over it. She was losing what little patience she had left and fast.

"Do you think this is funny?" Weiss's voice was staggeringly loud in the quiet cabin, halting Ruby's rambling mid-sentence. "Is this some kind of game to you? Beacon has been _attacked_ and you're more concerned with playing _pranks?"_ Weiss pushed herself up off the chair and turned away, crossing her arms.

The taller trio looked between each other, sharing surprised glances until Ruby attempted to continue, her voice ever so gentle, "Weiss… I know this might seem like nonsense- "

"It _is_ nonsense, Ruby!" Weiss's declaration was harsh, cutting through her partner's words as she spun back around, facing them with cold, critical eyes.

Coco appeared through the door suddenly, slamming it open and against the wall in her wake. "Wake up, ladies, the grimm are back!" She flashed a pearly grin. Weiss noticed the lack of her trademarked sunglasses.

After Jaune let out an offended whine, he and Yang wasted little time stepping into motion behind Coco, hastily accompanying her back outside.

 _Finally_ \- something familiar to Weiss, something that actually made sense around here, something that would never go along with one of Ruby's absurd schemes, something that she could take her frustrations out on - the grimm.

She reached for Myrtenaster, but, of course, without her gear, it wasn't there. Instinctively, she turned to look for it, but a hand on her shoulder pulled her focus. "Stay here," Ruby firmly commanded as their eyes met. The team leader headed for the exit.

Weiss's glare tried to bore a hole in the back of her partner's head. Did she really just expect her to sit and _wait?_ Why would Weiss be doing anything but helping to drive off the grimm? The heiress had dispatched at least a horde's worth of them before. She obviously wasn't some helpless girl in need of coddling; she was a _huntress_ , damn it! …Well, a huntress in training… but still...

An incredulous, "No!" resounded through the room and Weiss moved to follow her partner to battle.

Ruby whirled around with determination on her face, taking a wide stance and stretched her arms taut across the doorway, stopping the snowy haired girl in her tracks. "Weiss, please! I'll explain more when I get back, but this isn't- "

"I'm done with your games. Out of my way, Ruby!" Weiss tried shoving the taller girl, but was surprised by her inability to even make the girl budge. Stepping back, it took her only a second to ponder and come up with a genius, impromptu plan, because there was nothing - _NOTHING-_ that was going to keep her here suffering through her team's pranking shenanigans.

Weiss widened her eyes, pretending to gawk at something over the girl's shoulder. "Ruby, look, cookies!"

"What!?" The team leader started to turn her head.

In a flash, Weiss ducked under Ruby's arm, awkwardly shoving herself between the arm and the leg blocking her escape. After managing to squeeze herself through and gracelessly flopping to the ground on the other side, the heiress quickly rose to her feet and broke into an unsteady sprint, hearing footsteps trailing her own.

"Weiss, you don't understand, it's too dangerous to- "

"Of course it's dangerous, Ruby! And if you really thought it necessary, you'd use your speed to stop me," she called out between breaths.

"That's just it, we don't have our- oof!"

Hearing a thud, Weiss looked back over her shoulder to see her partner lying on the ground, face squarely in the grass. The heiress couldn't hold back a smirk as she turned forwards again.

Off in the distance, in the middle of the plain, Weiss could see a battle that Coco, Yang, and Jaune had just entered.

At the fringes of the fight, Sun and Nora were riding on the back of an Ursa Major, desperately clinging onto spikes jutting from its back while wailing on it with flimsy nun chucks and a sledgehammer as it ran and thrashed about, chasing a fleeing Cardin. At the center, Velvet shot an arrow from her bow at a Deathstalker and ran the other way, attempting to distract it, as the rest of her team surrounded it wielding variations of cheap-looking blades and a revolver. Behind them, the unfamiliar man and young woman seemed to be handling a few Boarbatusks somewhat well, slashing and whipping at them with flimsy weapons.

This wasn't a battle… this was unorganized chaos, and Weiss was right in the thick of it quicker than she realized.

A large shadow dashed across the ground in front of her and she skidded through the grass to a halt. In the air, a young Griffon, only a little smaller than the ones that attacked Beacon, circled above.

"Snow Angel?" Weiss turned to see a smirking Neptune leisurely sidling up next to her as he slowed his jog. "You're back on your feet pretty quick," he commented, giving her a once-over and a subsequent double take. An awkward feeling of being inspected so thoroughly creeped through her until he finally raised a curious brow at her, "Where's your weapon?"

The question seemed to barely process in her mind. Offering only a blank stare, she looked down to her nonexistent sheath, and back up to him in bewilderment.

Neptune hesitated for a moment, studying the heiress's lack of response. He pulled a compact taser from his pocket to hold on display for the heiress, lightly shaking it, "You know, the weapon that came in your box?... Ruby didn't give it to you?"

Blue eyes snapped open in realization. _'… Oh, dust…'_

In her hasty endeavor to join the fray, she had somehow completely forgotten that procuring proper arms was necessary for combat. Her actions had always been so precise and calculated, how could she have been so absentminded?

She placed the blame on her team leader without a second thought.

"Weiss?" A grip on her shoulder twisted her rather forcefully to face Yang, her gaze filled with surprised concern. "What are you doing out here? Did Ruby say it was okay for you to fight?"

The heiress scrunched her irritated brows together and swatted away the hand. "Yang Xiao Long, _I_ am a huntress. I do not need the explicit permission of our team leader, or anyone else for that matter, to- "

She clamped her hands over her ears as the Griffon overhead released a deafening screech.

Their eyes snapped up to see the beast descending rapidly towards them, talons poised to strike. Weiss dodged to the side with a roll, just ahead of the _**WHOOSH!**_ and gust of wind following through as it slammed down onto the ground where she had just been standing. She stood back up and blew a strand of silvery hair out of her face.

The Griffon stood surrounded by Weiss, Neptune, and Yang, staring down the blonde haired girl that held a sword in her hand… _A sword?_ Weiss placed that question away on the mental list with the many others that she would later look for answers to. Right now, there were more pressing matters. But, with the three of them, this was going to be an easy task, even without Myrtenaster.

Weiss adopted an aggressive stance and focused up her strength into her semblance. Turning thoughts into action, all she would need to do is summon a time dilation glyph under the grimm, and _thennn_ …

She let out a hum of bemusement, her brow creasing at the lack of a glyph appearing. Confused, she tried again… but still nothing…

Her semblance wasn't working.

"Weiss, get out of here!" Yang called from the other side of the Griffon while swinging away at its head with her sword and dodging backwards to evade the claws. The weapon rang out repeatedly as it clanged off the beast's armor on its skull.

Neptune rushed in from the rear, sticking his taser into the grimm's left hind leg and pulling the trigger. The Gryphon, however, hardly reacted to the initial shock, and instead raised its leg to deliver a swift kick to the boy's chest, sending him tumbling backwards and losing the taser.

Tossing him a very brief him glance, Weiss decided he would probably live, and she turned her focus back to the monster in time to see its barbed tail swaying towards her. She ducked under it, though a little too close for her liking, and moved to reach for Neptune's dropped weapon, scooping it up with grace.

In an instant, Weiss had a plan. Taking a page from Neptune's book, she ran to the beast's side, pushing the feathers from its wings out of her face, and planted the taser into its ribs. She pulled the trigger, discharging a small shock and catching its attention. The Griffon turned and lowered its head to erupt an immense, threatening screech in her face. With a smirk, Weiss jumped up to plant a shock in the hole of the grimm's armor, right into its deep-red eye.

The Griffon jerked its head away in pain and cried out. It swiped and slashed its claws about, trying to fend off enemies in a blind thrashing. Weiss was shoved by the broad side of its arm as it ebbed, getting a mouthful of feathers, and she fell to the ground.

Yang tried moving in for the killing blow but couldn't find an opening through its flailing. The beast began flapping its heavy wings to prepare for retreat, kicking dirt up into the group's eyes to protect itself.

As she lay in the grass, Weiss could barely see Roman leisurely walking up alongside the Griffon, swinging a metal bat by the handle and whistling an unfamiliar tune all the while. He sized up his weapon, his enemy, and then his target, before bringing the bat down upon the grimm's clawed toes with an intense strike and proceeding to walk off towards another fight. Again, the Griffon gave a shrieking howl, its retreat interrupted.

Another figure made an appearance coming from behind the avian grimm, running parallel to it, and reaching up to slash at the junction of where the wing met its body. With one quick slice of her sickle, the feathery appendage separated from the Griffon, evaporating into dust, and Ruby bolted over to Weiss's side as the beast recoiled backwards. "Weiss, are you okay?" Ruby's concern spilled out in her words and she hastily scanned her partner for injuries.

Brushing aside her leader's worries, Weiss gave a huff as she stood and dusted herself off, "I'm fine."

With raised shoulders, Neptune marched forward with a grumpy frown and snatched the taser back from her hands, mumbling to himself, "It's cool, don't ask if _I'm_ okay…"

Ruby opened her mouth to say something more, but the Griffon had stomped its front legs against the ground in a challenge, apparently seeking revenge on the sickle-wielder who took its wing. "Get back!" Ruby and Neptune placed themselves between Weiss and the aggressor, facing off against the beast.

There was a moment of hesitation from all parties, but Neptune was the first to act, moving in a circle around the grimm to pull attention away from Ruby and Weiss but still keeping his options open with some distance.

Weiss looked to her partner in front of her, "Ruby, I know you have my sword. Give it to me." She tried to make sure her tone left no room for negotiation.

Ruby turned just enough to glance at her from the corner of her eye, a hint of sadness in them before closing and reopening them with replaced fervor. "Weiss, as your team leader, I am ordering you to back down!"

It was Ruby's turn to leave no room for negotiating. She quickly turned back and leapt forward at the opening provided by Neptune. She was able to get a few sticks and cuts in with her sickle while the blue haired boy attacked from the other side. Ruby caught eyes with her sister. They exchanged knowing glances and nodded, coming to an understanding of some unspoken plan.

Amidst the duo's assault, Yang took advantage and moved in through the Griffon's blind spot. With all her might and agility she thrust her sword into its neck and twisted, exploding it to dust, but not before Ruby had been thrown back by the Griffon's backhand swipe of its paw.

Weiss grit her teeth in indignation. Though the strike against Ruby wasn't even close to lethal, she had always hated to see others taking hits on her behalf, and she wasn't going to let it continue.

Ruby made an awkward attempt at handspringing back up to her feet, ready to join Yang and Neptune as they ran off to assist the others with the rest of the grimm, but Weiss stood firmly in her way.

"Ruby Rose, I've had entirely enough of this! Either hand over my sword or we are going to have serious problems, you and I!"

Ruby let forth an exasperated stomp of her foot. "What is wrong with you, Weiss? Why won't you just trust me!"

"What's wrong with _me_? What's wrong with _you!_ Why are you treating me like I'm useless?"

The dark haired leader jerked back slightly with a frown lowering her head and voice, "You're… you're not useless, Weiss,"

"Then why! Why are you acting like this, Ruby!?"

"Because someone died under my watch last week!"

Weiss's heart almost broke for an instant at the anguish in the girl's strained words. She sounded so genuine in her plea… but… no, that couldn't be. That was impossible… it just didn't make sense.

Frustration took over again and she swiped at the air with a dubious scoff. "When will you let this joke go? Why do you keep pretending like you've been here so long? We were all at school just yesterday!"

Before the heiress could flinch, Ruby reached out and snatched her wrist, her deep silver eyes heated with anger. "Will you just listen to me, damn it!"

Weiss sunk in on herself. Her eyes flew wide and flickered between the almost-painful grasp on her wrist and the severe glare her leader was leveling down at her. _'Did Ruby just curse…? She_ _ **never**_ _curses… But she just cursed… at_ _ **me**_ _…'_

"Weiss, this place isn't like what you're used to," Ruby shouted. "Everyone showed up here just like you did, one by one, exactly four weeks apart. Our auras and semblances don't work here so everything you know about combat is different, and you are in no condition to be fighting yet! And I know that that doesn't make any sense right now, but please…" She paused to inhale a deep breath and compose herself. Loosening her grip, she calmly took Weiss's hand in both of her own, slowly rubbing her thumb over the reddened wrist.

Ruby softened her voice and her eyes, "But please, as your friend, your team leader… and someone who has missed you so, _so_ much… _please_ believe me when I say that I haven't seen you in over a year." Ruby dropped the white haired girl's hand to wrap her arms around Weiss's own, pulling her into a tight embrace. "Fourhundredandfortyeightdaystobeexactbutwho'scountingright...?" The taller girl let out a sheepish chuckle.

Weiss could barely process the words she had just heard or the fact that she was being hugged. Her jaw hung open. Ruby said it had been over a year since the last time they'd seen each other, and Weiss _believed_ her now. But she hadn't been in a coma or anything, at least she didn't feel like she did (not that she knew what that felt like), so, how could this have happened…? Nonetheless, she knew this wasn't possibly a joke anymore; she could hear the sincerity in her partner's voice and Weiss scolded herself for even thinking that Ruby could somehow pull off a prank of this scale.

And if Ruby was telling the truth, then that meant that they would really have to keep fighting off these waves of grimm without their semblances or auras to protect them, along with the Titans, whatever those were.

It also meant that someone had really died recently like Ruby said.

Weiss's eyes slowly widened with horror.

One person's absence stuck out immediately. Someone significant that she had yet to see or hear any mention of since she got there, and it sent a horrible shiver tingling all the way down her spine just thinking about it.

"Ruby…" Weiss quietly started. The taller girl pulled her head back just enough to see the terrified stare of the heiress. "That… grave I saw earlier, by your cabin… is… is it Blake's?"

They each held their gazes for a moment, a tinge of sorrow in Ruby's face, yet somehow still blank. Weiss found she was unable to read her partner's indistinct expression.

Ruby's eyes flickered to somewhere over Weiss's shoulder and she parted her lips.

"Look out!"

For a split second, Weiss could feel her partner tense up and brace for impact.

* * *

 _Let me know what you think so far! Whether you think it's great, total shite, or just want to give some criticisms, I wanna hear it because nothing motivates me more than reading comments! Thanks for checking it out!_


	2. Chapter 2

_So, sitting at about 12,200 words, this chapter ended up being waaayyy longer than anticipated, basically twice the length of the last one._ _It also took forever to come out, but it's finally here!_

 _Also, I appreciate the support so much from you fine people!_

 _Enjoy!_

* * *

"Weiss!"

Ruby could barely even keep her dizzy head up or hear herself calling out to the heiress curled up on the ground just a few feet in front of her. She struggled to lift herself up from her prone position; everything just _hurt._ With ears ringing, the sounds of the fight all around her were washed out, leaving only the lowest of blotted hums.

Situating two palms flat against the grass, she grunted as she heaved against to get up. Trying to balance a knee under herself, she toppled back over on her side after her left arm abruptly gave out.

Something didn't feel right with her arm...

"Little Red, I feel like I shouldn't have to tell you this, but the battlefield probably isn't the best place to be wooing a girl."

Ruby angled her head to peer up to Roman, bat in hand, posture in a defensive stance and keeping his focus on the Boarbatusk that was circling back around towards them.

"Yeah, Rubes, I have to… _agreeee withhh Romannn_ ," Yang grit her teeth through that, and took up her own stance alongside him. "You should probably keep your focus on the fight so you don't get bowled over." She turned her focus off to the side somewhere, "Hey, guys! A little help over here? We'll clean the rest of this up."

Ruby had tried standing again, wavering, about to take another tumble. This time however, an arm reached down to link itself at the elbow with hers and helped hoist her up. Her eyes groggily followed a pair of swaying, brown, and furry rabbit ears bobbing into the top of her view. She turned her drooping head up slightly to see Velvet's concerned smile as the faunus looped her arm under Ruby's as the younger girl unconsciously leaned into her for support.

"That looked like a nasty hit," Velvet started. "May I assist you?"

Ruby's gaze fell back down to her unmoving partner, not even hearing the other girl's question. "I… gotta get Weiss," she strained to say and tried to move towards her.

Velvet caught her as she almost immediately fell down again. Then she called out, "Yatsu, could I ask a favor?"

Finally, a _pop!_ in Ruby's ears brought back the sounds of the world and the battle. She heard the slow, heavy footsteps moving their way. Yatsuhashi already seemed to know what was being asked, as he sheathed his sword that was no bigger than the length of Ruby's thigh, kneeled down to hook an arm under Weiss's knees, an arm beneath her back, and scooped her up like she weighed no more than paper.

No doubt pressing for a real answer, the rabbit faunus looked back to Ruby intently, "We'll take you back to your cabin, is that alright?"

Ruby gave a vague, yet consenting hum, her eyes not leaving her partner's limp body in the giant's gentle hold.

Velvet called out over her shoulder to her team again, "Coco, we're going to help Ruby and Weiss, are you going to be okay?"

"Yeeeaaap," Coco responded plainly as she casually took a couple potshots at a Deathstalker with her long-barrel revolver.

* * *

"She's going to be fine, Ruby." The anxious leader had been sitting on the edge of the bedside watching Weiss sleep for so long, that Velvet's sudden voice almost jolted her out of her seat. "You, on the other hand, I still need to look over."

Ruby hesitated pulling her gaze from Weiss. She looked so peaceful lying there. The steady rise and fall of her breathing was almost therapeutic as Ruby mused over her memories of the white haired girl from Beacon, and a faint, dreamy smile began to play on her lips, despite the fact that they had gotten hurt because of Weiss's persistence. Sure, the heiress could have been a _little_ rough around the edges sometimes, but that was just another thing she loved about her, just another thing that made her, _her._ Like she had told Weiss herself, she missed her partner dearly, and just having her back now made Ruby's heart soar. More than Weiss would ever come to find out, she hoped.

Though, a constant, increasingly painful throbbing and pressure in her shoulder were enough to pull her out of her reverie. Now that the adrenaline from her brief part of the fight had left her system, Ruby was really starting to feel how much it hurt, and Velvet seemed to take notice that she had been unconsciously keeping her arm still and hugging it very close to her side.

The rabbit faunus moved around the bed to stand before her. "Now, if you could lift your arms straight up for me," she requested.

Ruby faced her, legs hanging off the bed, and began to do as instructed, but a searing pain immediately shot through her left shoulder all the way to her fingers. She gasped, sucking in air through her teeth and cradled the arm back against her body.

Velvet pressed her lips into a thin line, "That bad, huh?"

Silvery, worried orbs looked up to Velvet, "I think something's wrong with my shoulder."

"May I take a closer look at it?" Velvet stepped a little closer and Ruby nodded.

The pair stayed there awkwardly for a short time, staring at each other expectantly. Ruby's eyes darted away and back at her several times with increasing confusion before Velvet frowned and cleared her throat, "… Ruby, you're going to need to take your shirt off."

Ruby's brows went up, "Oh, uhh, right!" She peeked an uneasy glance back to her partner to make sure she was still asleep, though she wasn't really sure why she did. They had gotten dressed and changed in front of each other before in her days at Beacon, at least down to their undergarments, so why was she nervous about it now? And why was it Weiss that made her tense? Velvet was here too, and she was even the one _asking_ her to remove the shirt. It must've just been that she hadn't seen her in a while and would just have to get used to it again. Right, that was probably it!

Taking a quick breath, the sickle wielder first ventured to use her good hand to hold the other's long sleeve and pull the injured arm inwards, inside of the shirt. When that proved too painful, she then tried to grip under the hem of the shirt and lift it up in one fluid motion. Unfortunately, she managed to botch the attempt, getting it stuck over her head as she gracelessly writhed and grunted, trying to get it off.

After a few awkward moments of the altercation, Velvet's timid inquiry could be heard through her clothes, "Umm… would you like me to -"

"No-no!" Ruby's preemptive objection came out a little louder than intended. "I mean- uhh... I've got it…"

With the creaking and shaking at her bedside, Weiss's eyes fluttered open, and it only took a moment for her to vaguely remember some of the events that had passed. She hoped it had been a dream.

It wasn't.

She puffed out a sigh of resignation and tilted her head towards the source of the disturbance. Weiss blinked, taking in the odd sight of Ruby wrestling with her shirt halfway up her head while Velvet stood over her with embarrassed, slumped ears and a somewhat amused expression. She was glad to see her partner was okay, but also bristled at the fact that she'd disturbed her rest. Worst of all, that damn headache was back with a vengeance.

"What are you doing?"

Ruby's body went rigid at the sound of the cold voice. It was a good thing her face was hidden, else they would definitely be able to see it burning up right then.

"I'm checking Ruby for any injuries," Velvet explained on her behalf. She watched Ruby with curious eyes as the leader resumed her skirmish, "… Once she is able to discard her blouse…"

"Uhh- ehh, yeah," Ruby affirmed so resolutely.

After a while of watching her partner flail about, Weiss facepalmed with a clear _slap!_ and decided she'd seen enough. She sat up in her bed and took hold of the offending clothing, giving it a tug upwards and towards herself.

Ruby grunted as she tried to pull away and keep her injured arm close tight. "Ack! What are you doing!"

"I'm taking it off since you are, apparently, incapable." Weiss gave another pull, and effectively dragged Ruby backwards onto her lap. The helpless girl squirmed to sit back up.

"But, Weiss- "

"Ruby, stop fighting me and just move your arm."

"Ouch! My shoulder!"

"Well, if you would just let me take it off- "

With one last heave, the piece of cloth slipped off Ruby's body and hung limply in the heiress's fingers, swaying ever so slightly from the remaining momentum.

They both stiffened, their faces reddening at the concept that Weiss had just removed Ruby's shirt. The duo's eyes drifted to the leader's bra, then to each other, and snapped their gazes away as Ruby shot back up to seat herself perfectly upright at the bedside, facing the other way.

Remembering what was in her hand, Weiss tossed the fabric aside like it had suddenly caught fire, and quickly folded her hands in her lap.

' _It would seem Ruby has grown in another aspect as well... She's definitely Yang's sister.'_ Weiss shook the image for comparison out of her head until it was just a fleeting thought.

Ruby cleared her throat. "Thanks," she offered quietly to the snowy haired girl behind her, and received a dismissive hum.

Velvet looked between the two, appearing loath to remind them that she was still in their presence. "… Well then, Ruby. If I may?"

Weiss quietly watched from behind as Velvet began examining her teammate from her hand up to her shoulder. The faunus had taken hold of Ruby's wrist, cautiously trying to guide the arm through its normal motions as far as it would go (which wasn't far at all), much to her teammate's discomfort if the continuous stifled groaning was of any indication.

"Weiss may have got a lump to the head, but it seems that you took the brunt of the force, Ruby…" Velvet paused to give Weiss a quick glance and a smile, "It's good to see you again."

The heiress peered up to her, frowning a little in confusion before remembering something Ruby had told her. _I haven't seen you in over a year… Four hundred and forty-eight days…_

Weiss briefly pondered the theory that she had been frozen in time, as Ruby's words seemed to suggest. It all seemed so… _ridiculous… absurd…_ and it went against everything she had ever learned about the concept of linear time. Sure, Weiss herself had access to her time dilation glyphs, but this was about a million steps in another direction. This was on another scale of utilizing dust. Almost, magic… She shuddered.

"It's good to see you too, Velvet," Weiss calmly managed.

A silence filled the room. The white haired girl eyed Velvet for a while, continuing to muse through thoughts.

"Twenty weeks," the rabbit faunus said as if answering the exact question Weiss had been thinking herself. "I've been here for twenty weeks. My team got here mostly around the same time, except for Coco. She was one of the first ones here… I'll never forget the look on her face when I arrived…" A sweet smile played on Velvet's lips, seemingly going over fond memories in her head. "She normally keeps herself very composed in front of others, maintaining her image, but that day…"

Ruby turned her body a little, just enough to see Weiss out the corner of her vision, before bringing her good hand up to her eye to mimic a crying motion, "Coco was all waterworks that day," Ruby chuckled with Velvet joining in.

As Velvet moved her fingers up and down, applying small amounts of pressure here and there to find out what hurt, Weiss's gaze fell to Ruby's almost bare back. Just like everything else about her, even her back managed to somehow look different. Leaner, more muscle –

It looked good… Well, it was fine… It looked fine. Healthy, even. Yes, she looked healthy.

Weiss pushed down a warm feeling rising in her chest, then she tilted her head, narrowing her gaze as she found her hand curiously hovering towards something on her partner's skin that hadn't been there before.

Ruby flinched, and let out a sound somewhere between a yelp and a gasp at the sudden touch of the slightly cold fingers on her lower back just to the right of her spine. "W-Weiss…?" she stammered out.

"When did you get this scar?"

Ruby exhaled, a bit of tension leaving her body. She knew exactly which scar Weiss had her hand on, the one that looked like a small, faint smear of road rash. "Oh, I uhhh- during one of our first attempts at fighting the Titan, I was climbing up on the side of it, and I kindaaa… slipped off," she giggled sheepishly. "Bounced off its ankle on the way down."

She heard the quietest of disapproving hums from behind as the fingers slowly glided to a new spot, upwards and slightly to the right, just under her shoulder blade.

"What about this one?"

A hint of pink dusted across her cheeks at the soft graze and slightly embarrassing memory. "Oh… that one… I, umm… I tripped…"

A moment of judgmental silence passed. "You… tripped..." Weiss echoed skeptically.

Ruby's response started out small, "Yeah… was carrying a box of weapons to clean them, and, well… I mean - you would not believe how easy it is to get a scar without auras!" She could almost _feel_ how hard Weiss rolled her eyes at that one.

The fingers once again moved, slower this time, to the other side of her lower back. They rested upon a long, thin scar that curved around to her side.

"And this one?"

Ruby swallowed thickly and her shoulders tensed, which only increased the pain in them. "Umm, that scar has a bit of a story to it…"

"I'm listening."

"Well…" Ruby gave a wary glance up to Velvet, who only returned one of her own briefly. "In the first few months, on another day where we were waiting for someone to arrive on that platform, a red haired faunus with horns showed up. I didn't recognize him, which I thought was kinda weird, but he was another person to help, so we welcomed him. He said his name was Trent. He never really talked, and he was kinda… _intense_ , but he was a good help to us…"

She trailed off as she turned a little to make eye contact with Weiss, a look of nervous concern on her face, "He… he had an SDC brand over his left eye… He's been wearing a blindfold to cover it."

Her hand leaving Ruby's scar to cover her own mouth, the heiress's eyes went wide and an uneasy silence took over as her stomach began to churn. She was dumbfounded, once again finding herself unable to believe the words coming out of her leader's mouth. She knew that the company she was set to inherit had some 'questionable' practices, but this was beyond any level she had thought of.

Weiss was only able to echo Ruby, muffled by her fingers, "A… b-brand?"

Jabbing her good arm forward through the air, Ruby tried giving her best impression, "Yeah, you know, like- Tsssss…"

Weiss winced at the uncomforting sound and image.

Ruby tried to continue the story when she sensed her partner's discomfort, "He, uhh, he was the fifth person here… Everything was mostly okay between everyone, up until about when Yang showed up…"

' _Of course that hot head would be involved when things go awry…'_ Weiss thought.

"She was the fourteenth, and she recognized him right away as the man who cut off her arm at Beacon. He had been lying to us for almost a year... His real name is Adam."

' _Oh.'_ Weiss immediately scolded herself for her knee-jerk thoughts. Then, her brows met in contemplation, _'Adam… why does that name sound familiar?'_

"You could probably guess that it got kinda crazy…" Ruby continued, "Yang went after Adam as soon as she saw him… and he defended himself without mercy, but Yang was weaponless, armless, and auraless, so I had to help…"

"He did this to you?" Weiss was trying to keep a calm voice but her anger towards this man was starting to show.

Ruby hung her head in shame, "Ahehe… he got me pretty good. Without the reach of Crescent Rose, I had a hard time getting in close enough to use this puny thing." Ruby languidly lifted up her comparably small sickle before accidentally dropping it to the floor with a _Clang!_ "Ahh! I'm sorry, Sliver Rose, I didn't mean it!" she stressed as she gave it a remorseful stroke. Ruby stopped and peered over to Weiss, opting to put the weapon away, " _Anywayyy_ , things have been a little tense since that day…"

The heiress ignored her partner's antics, "Didn't anyone step in to help? There's only one of him and how many of you?"

"Well, not a lot of people really carry their weapons with them to greet the new person…" Ruby dropped her gaze to the floor in front of her despondently, "Roman had his weapon... He was hesitant to pick a side, but he ended up fighting against me…"

Weiss sharpened her eyes at her partner's apparent gloom, "You say that like you're disappointed…" When Ruby didn't answer, the heiress tilted herself towards the girl's side trying to catch her gaze, but she nervously turned further away.

" _Ruby,_ " Weiss warned, speaking slowly, "You say that like you were expecting that murderous bastard to fight alongside you... _Why_?"

Ruby winced at the question that was definitely more of a demand for information. She slowly swiveled her head to meet her teammate's death stare, "Because… well… he's not really so bad when you get to know him?" Ruby offered, speaking so cautiously like her words were weaving through a minefield armed and ready to explode with even the slightest misstep. Though, when Weiss only continued to glare, she couldn't help but start to rush, "And – uhh, we've been on the same side for almost a year now, and he's been a big help to us, and I've been trying to make peace with him, which is going well! And he gives us all these cool nicknames, and he's actually kind of funny sometimes, and- "

Ruby misstepped.

"He's... _**funny**_ _?"_

Ruby and Velvet both grimaced.

"Oh, _I'm_ _sorry_. I didn't realize you were now best friends with the man who," Weiss began counting off with her fingers, "One- tried to kill you, Penny, Blake, and Sun. Two- punched Yang through a concrete pillar with a giant mech after trying to murder the four of us. Three- has stolen copious amounts of dust and lien from people, including my family. And four- helped release hordes of grimm into a heavily populated city _and_ _then_ once more into our school for good measure!"

Ruby only stared at her with a nervously forced smile.

"But he's not so bad when you get to know him, right?" Weiss asked sarcastically, crossing her arms.

"Umm… right?"

Weiss couldn't help the growl that escaped her throat, and Ruby was pretty sure she could see steam coming out of her partner's nostrils as she huffed.

"Ruby," The sickle wielder immediately turned to Velvet, silently thanking her with her eyes for the dearly cherished distraction. "I think your shoulder's dislocated." …Maybe it wasn't the distraction she was looking for.

"Is that… bad?"

"Well, it's not _bad_ -bad, but without your aura to fix it for you, we'll need to put it back in place manually, and the longer we wait, the more painful the process becomes," Velvet informed.

Ruby's eyes almost bulged out of her head. "So… how do we do that?"

"Luckily for you, I've got the prefect remedy." Velvet turned her focus to the door, "Yatsu! Could you come in here for a moment?" Without missing a beat, the three girls watched Yatsuhashi enter the room, having to slightly duck under the doorway to get in. The giant looked at them, and his eyes widened almost imperceptibly at Ruby before abruptly turning his gaze away, recollecting his stoic expression. He approached, looking anywhere but at the partly undressed girl, and Velvet snorted. Weiss was pretty sure she'd have been able to see him blushing if not for his darker complexion.

Velvet coughed into her fist and stepped back, making room for him, "Before his aura was unlocked, Yatsuhashi used to throw his arm out of its socket all the time trying to wield that gigantic sword you saw him use back at Beacon. He's practically an expert at popping shoulders back in."

Ruby gulped. 'Popping' any kind of body part sounded very unpleasant.

She stared up at Yatsuhashi with big, worried eyes, and he finally looked down at her. She was just barely aware of her rapid heartbeat when Velvet tried to calm her down, "Don't worry, Ruby. He's basically a big teddy bear." He peered over to Velvet with a blank, unreadable expression, and she gave him an apologetic, yet playful smile, "What? You kind of are."

The silent giant focused back on Ruby and carefully took hold of the injured arm. Assessing the damage, he moved it around with such an incredibly gentle touch as if she was the most frail thing he had ever seen. "Are you ready?" He asked quietly.

Ruby stalled, trying to gather the courage to give the go-ahead. She was afraid to ask what exactly was about to happen, but, after a few moments, she finally gave the most unsure nod of her life.

After returning a nod of his own, he directed his full attention to his grasp on her arm, "Alright… five…"

Ruby felt a hand of reassurance on her back from her partner.

"Four…"

Yatsuhashi tensed his shoulders.

"Three…"

Weiss watched a bead of sweat drop from the side of her leader's head.

"Two…"

Ruby squeezed her eyes shut and sucked in a breath.

"One…"

A light downward tug on her arm.

 _Pop._

…

…

…

She heard someone give a quick exhale through their nose.

"Ruby, you can open your eyes now," Velvet said with a hint of amusement.

Ruby cracked one eye barely open to see that Yatsuhashi had already taken a couple steps back already. "…That's it?" He nodded as a small smirk broke through his blank face, and he quickly banished it. Ruby slowly began to test moving her arm around - straight up in the air, behind her head, in a swinging gesture, twirling it in a whirlwind -

The pressure was gone! It was still pretty dang sore, but she could actually move it around like normal! That was easy peasy, and she wasn't even worried at all!

She beamed a smile up at Yatsuhashi in gratitude, "Thanks, Yatsu!" He simply bowed his head and exited from where he came after Velvet thanked him as well.

"Now, your arm still needs time to heal," Velvet started, moving to stand before Ruby again, "and you'll need to make minimal use of it in the meantime. I'm going to go retrieve a sling from our supplies for you, so hang tight." She paused just before she got to the door and looked back over her shoulder, "Oh, and… you can put your shirt back on."

Weiss, who had already been comfortably sitting back in bed against the wall, crossed her arms as she watched Ruby sheepishly turn around to look at her, tucking her legs to the side, "Hey, Weiss?"

The heiress already knew what question was coming. "Your shoulder is fixed. You can put your shirt on yourself, Ruby," she flatly explained.

"But you heard her! 'Minimal use!'" The leader argued.

"Absolutely not!"

Ruby scooted closer and leaned over Weiss's legs, nearly lying in her lap, and initiated her signature, fabled technique.

Weiss's curious brow lifted at her, then turned away with an unfazed hum and half smile, "Sorry, Ruby, but your puppy dog eyes seem to only have worked when you were younger. They've lost their innocent charm. Your cuteness has turned more into…" _Beauty…_ Weiss's voice faltered a bit, "Into, umm…" Her teeth sank into her bottom lip as she tried to finish her unintentionally abandoned sentence. She could tell her friend she was beautiful, right? That was a completely normal thing between friends, right? But then, why was it proving to be difficult?

Ruby took notice of the heiress missing more than a few beats, and perked her head up, unwittingly bringing her face much closer than what Weiss thought entirely necessary. "Into what?" She asked curiously.

"I…" Weiss could feel Ruby's warm exhales on her chin as she kept her head turned slightly away. She discerned her own shallow breaths as well as the heat creeping from inside her chest up passed her neck, and, all at once, she became _very_ aware of how Ruby was basically lying across her lap and somehow _still_ shirtless...

"Ahh! Why is your face getting red! Are you sure your head feels okay? Should I hurry and go get Velvet?"

"Just- get off of me!" Weiss gave her partner a shove and Ruby fell back onto the bed. "Personal space, Ruby," she emphatically asserted.

"But you never use to have a problem with it…?" Ruby said with a tinge of hurt and bemusement. "Well, at least, not since we actually became friends…"

Weiss flipped the bed covers off herself, then rose out of bed, brushing off imaginary dust. "Yes, well," _things change_. But… what had changed? Weiss hadn't changed since yesterday (or what only seemed to have been a day for her), though their situation was different, and Ruby was _certainly_ different.

Weiss walked over to pick up the hastily discarded shirt and moved back to Ruby, "Come on, arms out." Ruby gave her a surprised look before smiling and scooting to sit at bedside in front of her partner to do as told.

Weiss began gently working the fabric over Ruby's arms, eliciting only a few grunts in the process, while trying not to think about why she was kind of disappointed to be putting it back on. Just as she was about to slip the hem over Ruby's head-

"Let me guess- " They both looked to the doorway, meeting lilac eyes. Yang was leaning against it with the biggest shit eating grin Weiss ever saw from her, "It's not what it looks like?"

The heiress narrowed her eyes in irritation, but still managed a calm rebuttal, "You'd be correct. I'm putting her shirt _back_ _on_ ," Weiss informed the blonde so matter-of-factly, then immediately regretted her wording.

"Oh, so you've already eaten the Weisscream."

Whatever response Weiss was expecting, it wasn't that; she didn't even know what that meant! Both hers and Ruby's faces lit up bright red.

Nora suddenly came charging in passed Yang, evidently having heard everything, "AWW, YEAH! Who's ready for some hot, unadulterated, huntress-on-huntress, lip-locking ACTION!?"

Weiss struggled to find words, "N-Nothing of the s-sort is happening!" she stuttered.

Nora traded her enthused demeanor for a bored one as she tilted her head, "Oh, too bad."

"Umm, excuse me," Ruby and Weiss heard a delicate voice approaching from outside. "Pardon me," Velvet slipped by Yang and Nora into the cabin, sling in hand, as Weiss finally finished replacing Ruby's blouse. "I'm back."

It didn't take long to get Ruby's arm situated comfortably in the sling. She wiggled it around, hopped up and down, testing it out Weiss assumed, while Nora took the liberty of explaining the parts of the fight they had missed in great (and probably highly exaggerated) detail.

"So, how long do I have to wear this for?" Ruby inquired.

"Well, I'm not really sure. Could be a couple weeks, could be a couple of months," Velvet offered back apologetically.

"Aww, but what about when we go into the maze tomorrow? Weiss just got here and I wanna fight with her like the good old days!" Ruby looked up to the faunus with a disappointed pout like it would somehow shorten her recovery time.

"Sorry, Ruby, tell that to your shoulder," she teased with a playful smile. "Well, now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go check up on the rest of my team, see how they fared in the fight after Yatsu and I left."

They all said their 'thanks,' 'byes,' and 'laters' to Velvet as she made her exit, then Ruby spoke up to Yang and Nora, "So, how'd everyone else make out, are they all okay?"

Yang, who was standing beside Nora near the foot of the bed, visibly tensed at the question, "Umm… everyone's great! They're all… super good!" She gave her sister a thumbs up with an incredibly forced grin.

She was so obviously lying, it made Weiss cringe. Yang was never good at hiding her concerns.

Nora sent the blonde an annoyed side-eye and nudged her with an elbow, "Yang…" she whispered.

Yang mirrored the look and gave her own nudge. "I changed my mind, you start," she whispered back.

It then devolved into an argument of whisper-shouting and exchanging increasingly stronger elbow shoves.

"What? Why me?"

"Because she thinks I'm paranoid."

"You _are_ paranoid!"

"Exactly! That's why you need to go first!"

"But she's your sister, stop being stupid!"

"I'm not stupid, you're stupid!"

"Hey, I'm not stupid! Ren just says I'm- "

Nora was cut off as she was shoved forwards by Yang, though she was able to freeze her momentum before crashing into Ruby. She stood up straight, only to slouch again and address the sickle wielder in an uncharacteristically timid manner, "Umm, we, uhh… kind of think that you guys getting hurt today… mayyybe wasn't all that much of an accident… courtesy of Adam."

The air in the room seemed to change all at once. It felt thick, and the silence so heavy, Nora's awkward shuffling of her weight from one foot to the other from being under everyone's gaze could be heard.

 _And there was that name again…_

Weiss swallowed. "Pardon?" she asked, standing near the head of the bed next to a sitting Ruby.

Nora tried to continue and turned back to the blonde, "Well, uhh… I guess he was acting… kind of suspicious?"

Yang exhaled and stepped forward, to Nora's relief, "I've been keeping an eye on him, especially in fights. Maybe it wasn't exactly planned, but he and Ilia were fighting the Boarbatusks, and then when one of them was about to charge, he pretty much lined up with the two of you behind him, and he just…" She paused briefly, looking as though she was trying to reign in her emotions, "he moved and let it go..."

Ruby stared at her for a second, taking in the information, then her pensive gaze quietly met the floor as if searching it for answers.

"I saw it too. I bet he did it on purpose, the little punk!" Nora added. Then, her eyes lit up with an idea, and she pounded a fist into her palm, "Oh, oh! Maybe we should rough him up a bit and show him who's boss! Especially after what he did to Blake."

Weiss froze.

 _Blake…_

She remembered seeing the single grave outside. She remembered who Adam was – Blake had told her in the café that he was her mentor in the White Fang, just before they watched Penny get mutilated on live TV. She remembered the question she'd asked Ruby just before they got bulldozed by what was apparently a Boarbatusk.

Weiss took in a shaky breath and grit her teeth, "Is… Is Blake…?"

The three girls peered over to her uneasily, studying her, before looking down or away.

"We don't know…" Yang answered quietly, hugging herself and staring at the floor. "She never showed up here… And I'm worried that we'll never see her again."

Weiss pinched her brow in confusion, but felt a small wave of relief calm her nerves. 'We don't know' wasn't exactly a positive answer, but it was certainly a lot better than a confirmation of her teammate being six feet under.

"At Beacon, Adam just… _stabbed_ her through the stomach like a fucking psychopath," Yang spat the words out with conviction. "How could he do that to her, you know? Someone he used to care about?" Her hand moved to hang at her side, fist clenched and shaking. "And now he's hurt you two… Ruby, we _need_ to go after him."

Judging from Yang's tone, Weiss figured this wasn't the first time she'd proposed the idea.

"We don't know if he did this intentionally," Ruby calmly countered.

"So it's not enough that he took my arm? Or that he tried to kill Blake and might've succeeded?" Yang retorted, her eyes threatening to turn a few shades redder.

Nora and Weiss flinched away, but Ruby remained firm as she pleaded, "So we fight him, then what?... We kill him?" Yang's expression broke into surprise at Ruby's bluntness, and her mouth worked wordlessly. "What about when Ilia, Roman, and Cardin defend him? We kill them too?"

Weiss's brow almost flew up to her hairline at the mention of Cardin. The thought of that dense meathead defending _any_ faunus was absurd, much less one who attacked their home school!

"We lock them all up!" Yang's voice sounded much more unsure now.

"Where?"

"I don't know, we build a cell or something!"

"With what supplies, Yang? You know barely enough stuff comes in those boxes."

Looking to be intently mulling over more 'suggestions,' Yang finally huffed as she headed for the door. "Whatever…"

Nora reached a hand out to the blonde as she went, "Where are you go- "

"For a walk."

Yang left in a hurry, and Weiss watched her in disbelief as she went. In all her time of knowing the blonde, she had never once seen either of the sisters showing any kind of hostility towards each other. Between Weiss and Yang, sure, that happened all the time. Between Yang and Blake, only Blake ever got annoyed, and mostly just after one too many cat puns. _This,_ though, caught her full attention.

"Is she gonna be alright?" she asked.

Her leader wordlessly stared at the floor for a few seconds before glancing up to Weiss to force out a small smile. "She's just worried about Blake... We all are…" she said despondently and Weiss raised a skeptic brow.

"Ruby, that was more than just being worried."

"I think..." Nora started with a downcast gaze. "I think she's especially scared that Blake might not have made it out of Beacon... because Pyrrha didn't."

Jaw dropping, the blood inside Weiss's veins suddenly ran cold, and she shivered involuntarily. Pyrrha hadn't made it out...? But that couldn't be... _She was Pyrrha Nikos after all!_ The famous warrior-in-training from Mistral! She was even on cereal boxes! If there was anyone who _would_ make it, it was her...

While Weiss had never really been close with the girl, a pang of sadness as well as fear ran through her chest, and the heiress looked to her leader for some kind of rejection of the ridiculous claim, but found only sorrowful eyes looking up to her.

Ruby shook her head lightly, confirming Weiss's fear, before continuing, "Like I said, things have been tense since Yang got here... She never used to lose her temper with me like that, and anytime Blake is ever brought up, she goes off on someone. Otherwise she's just putting on a mask and pretending everything's fine."

"Chea," Nora pitched in, a hint of her usual quirky self starting to show again. "The other day I tried offering to spar with her to help let out her anger – no weapons of course because, I may be crazy, but I'm not _that_ crazy – and boyyyy was I feeling that for a few days afterwards," she admitted as she rubbed a sore spot on her arm.

Even though Weiss wanted to feel annoyed with how aggressive Yang had been towards Ruby, the more she thought about it, the more she came to understand it. Her partner was missing and she was stuck working together with the man who tried to kill them. If the same thing were to happen to Ruby, then may the gods help whatever poor soul would have the unpleasant privilege of enduring Weiss's wrath.

Nevertheless, in the end, she realized she wasn't worried about Yang. She knew the blonde was strong. She would bounce back, like she did whenever anything brought her down. And best case scenario – since Blake wasn't the one buried outside, she might show up in four weeks like Ruby said someone would and everyone's happy again.

Oh, right... The grave...

"Ruby?" Weiss asked cautiously.

"Yeah?" Ruby answered.

"If that's not Blake's grave, then whose is it?"

"...He was the last person who was brought here, before you. His name was Sky... and he was one of Cardin's teammates."

Weiss let out a breath of relief she only just realized she had been holding. "Oh, one of those brutes," she mumbled to no one in particular.

Ruby gasped, " _Weiss!"_

"Oooh dang, girl. That's cold," Nora added.

The heiress thought she might indeed be acting a little 'cold', but she crossed her arms and looked away, closing her eyes as if trying to escape anymore judgement. "Well excuse me if I find it a little hard to be sympathetic towards _Team CRDL_ of all people." That rag-tag team of misfits was one collective menace at Beacon, especially to faunus. The way they treated Velvet day after day, until the rest of Team CFVY finally caught wind of it and came down on them, was terrible. Though, if this boy, Sky, did die, then that certainly was a tragedy.

She wordlessly stood for a short while, prepping herself to defend herself against more chastising, but when it never came, she turned back to find Ruby with a gloomy expression, eyes downcast and avoiding her own. "Ruby…?" Weiss's voice was soft and careful.

"It was my fault…" Ruby's words barely came out as a murmur and the heiress leaned in a little closer to hear clearer.

Weiss wanted to reach out for a moment, before catching a bit of nervousness and retracting her hand back, holding it to her chest. "…What happened?"

"Last week… we defeated the Titan behind the first door and put its gem thing in that weird, secret shrine machine out in the forest, which opened the second door… Everyone was so excited that, after all this time, we finally managed to progress because we had enough people. Everyone wanted to 'party' and basically drink alcohol cause I guess that's the adult way to celebrate," she waived her hand around airily. "I was kind of against it at first, but… I let Yang and Coco convince me."

"You got drunk, Ruby?"

"Well, everyone did except for Ren, while Adam and Ilia never showed," Ruby continued. The memories of that night came back, along with another wave of guilt. She tried to swallow the constricting feeling in her throat and took in a shaky breath to steady her voice. "The grimm attacked us for the first time that night… They were coming out from the open doors to the Titans.'" Her bottom lip began to quiver and she looked away. "... We were so unprepared… exhausted from the fight earlier and in no condition to defend ourselves… Ren got really hurt trying to protect everyone, and I tried to help by giving direction, but… I wasn't sure, I kept second guessing myself, and… and then Sky, he… - "

Nora didn't seem to want her to finish that sentence, "Ren doesn't blame you, Ruby."

"But Cardin blames me."

"Cardin is a fool," Weiss firmly interjected. "Ruby, not to downplay your feelings, but how is any of that your fault? It's not like anyone _wouldn't_ have inebriated themselves had you told them not to- "

"But that's exactly what would have happened," Ruby countered as her gaze met the floor.

"… What?"

"I was the first one to arrive to The Hollow, and so I kinda-sorta became the unofficial leader or something just because I've been here the longest. So if I had just said no like my gut feeling told me to, or if I had at least stayed on watch- "

Weiss's soothing voice pierced through Ruby's ill-fated self blaming as the heiress moved to sit beside her, "But, if they had never attacked before, then you couldn't have known that was going to happen. No one could have. And if you're the leader, then that means you led this group to defeating this 'Titan' and getting that second door open in the first place."

Glistening silver eyes caught icy blue as if searching them for any doubt in her words until turning away, not sounding any more uplifted, "I guess..."

Weiss found herself feeling a little upset – not at Ruby, but at everyone else. Despite her seniority, why on Remnant would they deem her leader? Not that the heiress doubted her partner or thought she was incapable or anything, but being in command of seventeen people was a lot different than four. It was far too much to handle!

With pursed lips and hands on her hips, Nora looked between the two partners, thinking for a second before launching a finger into the air, "Hey, you know, speaking of Ren, you wanna know what always cheers me up? ..."

When Nora didn't supply an answer to her own question right away, Weiss tried to give the obvious solution, "... Is it Re- "

"It's seeing Ren!"

* * *

Lie Ren casually looked up from his book when Nora burst through the door with Ruby and Weiss in tow. He was lying in bed, his leg comfortably held up by a sling that was hanging far down from the ceiling. There were a few long, faint cuts on his arms and face, but they seemed to have almost healed completely.

"Hey guys," he said as they came in to stand at the foot of his bed, and they all greeted him.

Team JNR's cabin was largely similar to Ruby and Yang's... the same plain room, the same wooden everything. Though there was a chest by the door and one extra bed, it still had the same empty feel of 'boring.'

Ren's gaze peered over to Weiss, and he gave a polite nod, "Weiss, I heard about your arrival and the following grimm attack... I hope you are taking everything in stride. You look well."

Weiss returned a quick wave, "I'm... adjusting. And you look...- " She fumbled slightly to finish her thought.

"My recovery is coming along fine, no need to worry," he cut in with a smile to put her at ease. "Without aura, it can be a lengthy process, but, so far, no complications." He then turned to Ruby, studying her injured arm briefly. "I also heard about your accident."

For some reason, this plastered a grin across Ruby's face, and she skipped over to him, "Yeah! Now we're sling buddies!" she crowed while enthusiastically raising a hand for him to high five.

As the two exchanged unceremonious slappings of hands, Weiss noted that, just like that, Ruby had apparently broken out of her funk she was in and was back to finding the positives in a bad situation. The heiress shook her head and smirked – Nora was right, seeing Ren was a good picker-upper.

Nora stepped closer to Ren and leaned in next to his ear. "We could all use some extra cheering up today," she whispered way too loudly, then backed up and returned to her normal volume level, "Oh, tell them that _hilarious_ joke you always tell, you know the one!"

"Nora, I assure you, you're the only one that finds that joke funny."

"Oh, come on, Rennnn! Don't be a dinky winkie!"

The ninja quietly sighed, then, as Nora watched excitedly, he deadpanned, "Say, did you hear about the angry pancake? One day he just flipped."

Nora immediately exploded into near silent, breathless laughter, slapping a hand down on Ren's shoulder before sucking in a huge breath of air and starting over again, much louder this time.

Ruby tip toed over to sidle up against Weiss, snickering while using her good hand to cover her mouth, " _Dinky winkie..._ "

Weiss failed to choke back a laugh from her throat before quickly silencing herself with lips pressed together, because that was definitely not funny. They were just a couple of stupid words.

Shrugging off Nora's inability to stop laughing, Ren returned his focused to Weiss, "Anyway, I'm glad our leader has her partner back by her side. I'm sure everyone else is also happy you're here, and it's a good time for you to make an appearance. Despite the tragedy that took place last week, there was also a great victory." Out of the corner of her eye, Weiss noticed the little dip that her partner's head made at the reminder. "I'm sure Ruby has told you all about our triumph over the first Titan, but I assume she humbly left out just how vital she, herself, was to our success."

"And that battle was _**SICK!**_ You should have seen her in action!" Nora added, bringing clenched fists to her chest. "She was going nuts out there with that sickle thing – slicing that monster up like no one's business!" Ruby smiled sheepishly, her cheeks reddening as Nora demonstrated by pretending to hold the weapon and swinging her arms about while making, presumably, 'slicing' noises. "And then – oh man! And then, when it was dead, she ripped its eyeball out of its socket for the shrine, which is weird that we had to do that, but still so _totally_ gnarly!"

Smiling at the abundant, yet odd, praise being lavished upon her teammate, Weiss snuck a proud side-glance to Ruby, "Apparently I missed quite the show," before turning back to Nora, "What else did you find in there?"

Still grinning, Nora obliviously asked, "What?"

"Behind the first door, was there anything else?"

Her grin faltering, Nora looked confusedly at Ren and shrugged, "Uhh, nothing I guess?"

Weiss wrinkled her brow and caught her leader's gaze, giving her an expectant look.

"Umm, well, the area itself wasn't actually all that big..." Ruby began as she let her gaze fall. "But we didn't really look... We were all so tired from the fight, so we came back here, and then..."

 _The grimm attacked... Right.._.

Weiss was kicking herself for inadvertently bringing that up again. She hurriedly tried to move the subject along, "Well, you said it yourself, Ruby – this place has secrets, and if you've gained access to a new area but haven't explored it thoroughly, then I'd say we have some investigating to do."

Silver eyes lit up with excitement at the suggestion, and she opened her mouth to say something, but Nora beat her to it, "An investigation? There's still a little bit of sunlight left in the day so count me in!" she shouted as she looked to Ren. Then her expression dropped as she realized something, "Aww, but Ren can't come..."

The quiet ninja let out a humorous hum. "It's quite alright. Just don't forget your weapon again."

"Oh!" Ruby exclaimed, her head perking up. "That reminds me- " she mumbled to herself as she ran out the door, returning a little bit later hiding something behind her back. Ruby cautiously drew closer to Weiss, her face broadcasting an apologetic smile. "Umm... Weiss?"

The heiress tilted her head slantwise in suspicion, "Yes...?"

"Promise you won't get mad?" Ruby asked as she sunk into herself a little.

If Weiss wasn't already glaring at her partner, she was now, "...No."

With pursed lips, Ruby swallowed. " _Welllll..._ " She brought her hands into view to reveal a - ...

Weiss dropped her gaze down to the item her leader was holding, "...What is that...?" she flatly asked.

"It... looks like an ice pick... I guess it's supposed to be your weapon."

The heiress's scowl snapped back up to her interlocutor as she leaned forwards, "And what in the world would give you _that_ idea?"

Ruby shrunk further, wearing a nervous grin, "Well, it was in the supply box that came with you. There's always one weapon in every box, and they all usually sort of relate to the person's original one."

Small, pale hands swiped the pick from Ruby's and held it up close for her to get a good look, "Then tell me, Ruby, how _this_ relates to Myrtenaster!"

The taller girl held up her hands in a gesture of peace, "Well... it's... stabby? And it has a sheath like Myrtenaster..." When Weiss only growled at her, she added, "At least it's a nice ice pick."

Turning it about and giving it a grim, appraising look, she did have to admit (not verbally) that, based on her knowledge of ice picks, which was basically nonexistent, it did look nice. A long, 'stabby' silver prong extended out from the burgundy, varnish-coated, wooden handle. Still, the idea of the heiress being reduced to having to use it in battle was absurd as well as impractical. How was it fair that Nora could get a sledgehammer while Weiss was stuck with this? Whoever's twisted idea of funny this was to make her use an ice pick had a horrible sense of humor.

As everyone watched Weiss grit her teeth at the weapon like it had offended her, Nora found an opening, "Hey Ruby, wanna race to the first door?"

"Yes!" Ruby answered instantly as she once again took off outside, this time with Nora in pursuit.

Trying to calm herself, Weiss took a deep breath and peered over to Ren, whose lip was slightly curled at one end in a smirk. He reached an arm behind to pull two hunting knives out from under his pillow to present his own means of weaponry he had presumably been given. "We make due with the materials at hand," he sagely advised.

* * *

The idea of anyone beating Ruby in a race was a laughable one, up until the point where Weiss remembered they didn't have their semblances anymore. Then it became somewhat interesting. Unfortunately, she wouldn't get an answer to that question because it looked like Ruby and Nora had completely forgotten about their race as they were standing around cheerfully talking to Roman by the time she was finally catching up with them.

Of course it had to be Roman. Why wouldn't he be the one sticking his nose in other peoples' business? Just seeing his smug face made Weiss's blood boil.

The charismatic criminal caught a glance of Weiss as she made her way over, and he turned back to smirk at Ruby. "Ohhh _suuuure_ , Little Red," he droned as he put his arm around the girl's good shoulder and continued walking towards the first Titan's door as Weiss and Nora followed. "Of course I'll come and help. An extra set of eyes couldn't hurt, right?"

Ruby looked up at him, lips curling into a genuine smile, "Yeah!"

Weiss was wrong before, **this** got her blood boiling – taking advantage of her partner's naivety like that, bless her heart. The heiress wasn't even entirely certain what he was doing, but surely he was up to no good by pretending to be her friend!

And Ruby was acting so nonchalant about it too! What could have possibly happened to get these two on good terms?

"You okay, Weiss?"

The inquisitive voice broke Weiss's glare and she turned to face Nora, "I'm fine." She motioned with a nod towards her partner, " _That's_ not fine."

Not waiting for a response, she focused her attention back towards them, listening in on their conversation where, thankfully, Roman had both his arms back at his side.

"So when are you gonna tell me how you escaped that griffon at Beacon?" Weiss heard Ruby ask.

"How about the same day that you can manage to not trip while running and talking at the same time? And quit reminding me of being swallowed whole, you little shit," he teased.

Ruby chuckled, "Aww shut up you old dickhead."

Weiss's jaw dropped as Roman threw his head back in an obnoxious laugh and side-glanced at her, a huge grin creeping across his face. The heiress felt her skin growing red and was fairly certain her eyelid might have been twitching.

Ruby just cursed... again. This time, casually! Weiss felt her nose wrinkle in thought. Was Roman influencing her? Or maybe he was manipulating her? Either way, it wasn't going to last for much longer, not if she had anything to say about it. Because, now that Weiss was here, Ruby wouldn't need company from someone of the likes of _him_ anymore _._

Weiss noticed Roman look away for a moment and took her chance, sliding herself in between them, somewhat awkwardly. Walking alongside him wasn't ideal, but, if it was for Ruby, she would suffer through it.

When the man turned back to see the white haired girl giving a sneering smile up at him, he simply smirked back, which served to curb Weiss's. "Hey, I have an idea," he commented and gestured with his hands airily. "Why don't the two of you come to my cabin tomorrow night and I make dinner?" Nora made a small whine at not receiving an invite, but Roman seemed to ignore it.

Both partners' brows lifted in surprise and they looked between each other before turning back to Roman. "...What?" Weiss asked incredulously.

Ruby absentmindedly scratched the back of her neck, "Are you sure you want to use your rations on us?"

Putting a hand to his chest, Roman let out an annoying guffaw, "Oh, look at you, Red! Always thinking about others first. Of course I'm sure."

"And why would we say yes?" Weiss asked, keeping narrowed eyes focused on him as if he would reveal his true intentions any second, until she felt fingers rest themselves on the small of her back and she let out a gasp.

" _Weiss,"_ Ruby chided in a whisper before looping arms with her partner and smiling up at Roman again, "We'd love to come over for dinner!"

Roman nodded and Weiss was growling internally as they were finally nearing the first area. _Dinner at Roman's..._ It sounded like a bad comedy. Unfortunately for her, it was going to be a horror flick.

What a nightmare!

"This is it," Ruby pointed out as they reached their goal after an eternity of walking.

Weiss looked straight up at the thick, silver walls and lifted door. They seemed much more massive up close. Once again, the question of 'who would do this?' ran through her head. The entire thing appeared to be one huge experiment of survival through trials.

Ruby unlinked their arms, entering first into the spacious opening that was obviously made big enough for grimm to come through, and Weiss found herself missing the warmth.

Roman cleared his throat, gesturing for Weiss and Nora to continue forward when they turned his way, "Ladies first." Weiss merely glowered at him while Nora gave an appreciative nod as they moved along.

The path was rugged and sandy, and wasn't much of a path for long, as it turned into rocky ledges and walls that needed to be scaled. In fact, they were basically mountain climbing (which proved very difficult for a one-armed Ruby), and even though the sun was going down, it seemed to beat down harder here as if artificially enhanced over this area.

They were all sweating and breathing heavily by the time they got to the top. Scanning the area quickly, Weiss realized Ruby's words were true, it was a fairly small plain, surrounded by much taller, rocky walls, and it was littered with grass and a few dead trees. And then she saw something she wasn't expecting at all to see.

 _The Titan._

The colossal, humanoid-like figure was lying in the middle of the plain, face down in the dirt and grass, giant club still clasped in its grip, deader than dead. But... when any grimm died, they evaporated into the air, every time. So then, why was this thing still here? It didn't even look like it'd begun decomposing.

"Alright team," Ruby breathed out, trying to catch her breath. "Let's spread out and look for anything that seems like it might be out of place before the sun goes down."

Weiss cringed at her leader referring to Roman as being part of their 'team.'

"You got it, boss lady!" Nora gave a salute before running in the direction of nothing in particular.

The heiress only nodded before setting off towards the Titan, wanting to get a closer look at it. And _dust_ , did it ever live up to its name. Walking to its side, Weiss was barely as tall as its hand was long! She ran her fingers along its black skin that was covered in thick patches of fur. Ample amounts of dark, dried blood were enveloped in the hide of hair, and it had white pads of armor on it shoulders along with white face plating covering its nose up to its forehead. The Titan was nothing like she'd ever seen before and she marveled at the spectacle.

Without semblances or even aura, how was it possible for anyone to slay this beast? Weiss couldn't even imagine how grueling this battle must've been. It was no wonder they couldn't defend themselves from the grimm afterwards, regardless if everyone was intoxicated or not.

She spent some time studying the giant grimm, taking in all its facets and remarkable features, when her focus was broken by a shout, "Hey! I think I found something!" It was Nora's voice. Weiss turned towards where it was coming from but didn't see her. "Yep, definitely found something!"

The white haired girl started walking towards the voice, and Ruby shot past her, running eagerly, until she abruptly flailed her arms and disappeared from view, seemingly falling into the ground, "Wahh!"

"Ruby!" Weiss cried out in concern, breaking into a run of her own. Getting close enough would reveal that the ground sharply sloped downwards just about fifteen feet before it met the wall with shrubs along it, and Ruby laid at the bottom of it covered in dirt, groaning next to a giggling Nora.

"Never going to tell you how I escaped that griffon at this rate, Little Red!" Roman called down to them as he appeared next to Weiss, shooting her a smirk before carefully sliding down the slope himself and using his bat as a counterweight. Weiss really wished he would stop doing that – looking at her and smiling. It was getting irritating and creepy.

Sticking her pick into the ground, the heiress gracefully slid down as well and pulled her partner up, helping to dust her off in the process.

"Check it out," Nora whispered dramatically, pulling apart the couple of large, unkempt plants hugging the wall just enough to reveal, what looked like, a tunnel behind them.

Silver eyes flew open, "Woah..." Without hesitation, Ruby took out her sickle and began taking apart the defenseless shrubs standing in their way. When she was satisfied, she moved to step inside with Weiss right behind her, followed by Nora, then Roman.

The initial entryway was slightly cramped, but it widened up just a few feet inside into a closed off, rounded area where their eyes all locked onto something that sat in the middle. It looked like a big, rounded table made of rock, but it had a lifted, glass covering over top of it, and, underneath said glass covering, a neon red light was emanating from something else absolutely extraordinary.

"Holy frick, guys! Look!" Ruby exclaimed excitedly, which was _super_ loud in the small alcove, as they all stared at its contents. She had her face pressed into the glass, finger pointing from one object to the next, "It's freaking Crescent Rose! And my outfit from Beacon! And my cape! And... wait what is that?"

All of Ruby's old battle gear may have been neatly dispersed along the black table of stone, but their gazes collectively shifted to the floating ball of swirling light that was decorating everything around it with its red glow.

"What the heck _is_ that?" Nora cooed, effectively mesmerized by it.

"How do you think we open it?" Weiss asked softly, also mesmerized.

"Pfft, that part's easy." The orange haired girl wasted no time whipping her sledgehammer out and smashing it against the glass very, _very_ loudly just barely after everyone got out of the way... Except the glass didn't break. Nora dropped her weapon and brought her hands close with a shriek of pain, " _OW OW OW OW OW OWWW!"_

"Yeah, gonna need you to calm down there, Spaz," Roman requested as he walked around to the other side of the table. "Look."

Following in his steps, Ruby and Weiss saw another source of Red light in the form of, what appeared to be, a touch pad in the shape of a hand on the outside of the glass. "Maybe it needs to read your hand print, Ruby?" Weiss suggested and Roman chuckled to himself.

"Wow, you really were the brightest one in your year, huh?"

Weiss pressed her lips together and gave him a dirty look, but Ruby threw an arm around her partner's shoulders. "Yep! She really was!" she declared proudly. Despite not knowing if Ruby was being sincere or just trying to defuse a tense situation before it started, Weiss's lips curled into a heartfelt smile at her leader, which she returned.

"Of course, now are you two going to kiss or can we open this thing already?" Roman joked.

Both of the partners' cheeks flared red, and Ruby removed her arm from Weiss. "Right, right," Ruby muttered nervously and refocused on the touch pad calling her name, or more specifically, her hand. Examining the thumb's placement on the scanner, she realized her injured hand was needed, "Stupid left hand..." She awkwardly tilted herself over and leaned down, pushing her boob out of the way and putting enough force onto the security device until it seemed like it was finally starting to do something. It made a quiet, high humming noise, then a _Ding!_ sound as the glass started to peel back and into the table, much like the platform that Weiss was 'delivered' on.

Ruby's ecstatic grin could only be described as 'insane.' After all this time, she was finally going to be reunited with her precious Crescent Rose. First, she would clean her and polish her, then apologize profusely for being away for so long, even though it technically wasn't Ruby's fault.

Now that she thought about it, she was rejoining with Crescent Rose _and_ Weiss all in the same day. Holy crap! What a great day this turned out to be! Well, she did nearly break her arm/shoulder and then had a little fight with Yang, but not even those things could take away from today! She wasn't sure if _anything_ could! Well... she hoped she didn't just jinx it or something.

"Ohhh, my baby!" Ruby shouted (still ridiculously loud in the small tunnel) and picked up her new-old weapon as the glass had finally retreated enough. "I'm never letting you out of my sight again," she murmured, cradling Crescent Rose and nuzzling her close.

"Red, while your reunion is very touching, we should probably figure out what _that_ thing is." Roman pointed to the still-glowing ball of red light.

Drawing her face down to the light, she furrowed her brow in concentration and stuck her tongue out of the side of her mouth, humming pensively. She brought her right pointer finger close to try to poke it.

"Please be careful, Ruby," Weiss pled as she reached out a hand and placed it on her partner's back instinctively.

Ruby's finger slowly approached the shining orb, until it made contact and she recoiled instantly, the radiating sphere seeming to follow her retreat a fraction of an inch, "Woah..."

"What happened?" The heiress asked anxiously.

Ruby shook her head, "Nothing, it just... felt weird..." Bringing the same appendage to touch the globe, she held it for just a split second longer before pulling away again. This time, however, the light molded to fit over her whole finger and stayed attached to it. Ruby squeaked in surprise and fear as she attempted to swipe it off with her injured hand, but it only attached itself there as well. "Ahh! Get off! Why is it cold and hot at the same time!?" She yelled as she hastily tried brushing it off on her clothes. It kind of worked, but it seemed to seep into them, until all of the light had faded into her entirely and Ruby took in a forceful gasp of air like she hadn't breathed in an hour.

Weiss, whose own hands were scrunched up under her chin, was staring intensely at her partner, "... Ruby...?" she whispered, terrified of what had just happened. She glanced between Nora and Roman, who were looking on with bulging eyes.

"It's…" Ruby started, mumbling at the ground. "It's my…" She swiveled her head mechanically to face the group with a pair of absurdly excited eyes and a mile-wide grin, " _IT'S MY SEMBLANCE! OHHHHH MYYYYY GAAAAAAA- "_ Ruby exploded out of the alcove in a red blur, leaving behind a cloud of whirling rose petals and a gust of wind that whipped everyone's hair around. The remaining three turned to each other, exchanging surprised looks before the blur came flying back in four seconds later and skidding to a halt in front of Weiss, " _-AAAAAAWD!"_ Grabbing her chin and tilting it to the side, Ruby planted a quick kiss on the white haired girl's cheek, "You're a genius!" The speedster once again quickly blasted out of the cove.

Gallantly fighting against the growing warmth at the spot where her partner's lips had just placed themselves, Weiss couldn't help the pleased smile that made its way onto her face, "I know." She also knew that this was a huge deal, even though it didn't necessarily feel like it to Weiss, because, to her, she hadn't even gone a day without seeing the semblance. But, for Ruby, she had gone more than a year without it. And this wasn't big for just Ruby, this was big for the group as a whole. Ruby's abilities would make the next fight just that match easier, and maybe there would be one of these 'reward tables' after every Titan? Which means, Weiss would get her semblance back eventually as well. Though, she hoped it didn't go in order of appearance. She didn't want to have to take down sixteen more of those things for her prize.

Wiping the expression from her face, she caught a glimpse of Roman looking at her again with that evil smirk... Or, if Ruby's trust wasn't misplaced, maybe it was a playful smirk? Was there such thing as a playfully evil smirk? Actually, that was a dumb question because, of course there was – Yang displayed those all the time. Ack, what was she thinking, of course it was purely evil! Regardless, Weiss's glare did not falter.

* * *

Ruby had already run ahead to change into her combat attire, and was only intermittently present for the walk back. She would zip back and forth, each time adding to the path of petals and telling the group how a particular person reacted to the news – like how Jaune said 'wow, that's awesome' or Velvet congratulated her 'that's great news!' or Neptune shouted 'Ah! Get out, I'm getting changed!'

With it being quite dark out now, it was hard to see the quick blur coming and going.

The swift leader abruptly showed up by Nora's side out of nowhere once more, this time with bad news, "I just realized that me and Ren won't be sling buddies after today! My aura heals me crazy fast!"

"Your aura's back too?" Nora asked.

"Yep! Can't use my semblance without aura! But the good thing is that I'll be able to join you guys in the maze tomorrow," Ruby affirmed, back to skipping merrily.

Weiss let out a huff, "You keep mentioning this maze like I have any idea what you're talking about."

Ruby jumped over to Weiss, half skipping and half walking backwards in front of her, "It's what's behind the second door! It's basically a giant labyrinth. We went in there once already, but it was so huge that we never even found the Titan in there. And now that I have my semblance, I'll be able to find it no problem!" Ruby's face went blank for a moment, gazing off into the distance. Then, her grin came back just as fast as she looked at Weiss, "Hey! Wanna see something crazy?"

The heiress tilted her head at her suspiciously, "... Should I be nervous?"

The thing with Weiss was, if she didn't outright say no to an idea, then it totally meant that she was okay with it! At least, Ruby figured as much. "Look up!" she told her excitedly.

After raising a brow, blue eyes directed their attention upwards to nothing in particular. Looking around, Weiss could see the light of the day slowly giving way to the blackness of the imminent night overtaking it and the giant walls reaching high up into the darkness.

She slowly turned her head to continue surveying the area for anything of interest, feeling slightly annoyed at the possibility of Ruby having her search around aimlessly just to poke fun at her, "Ruby, there's nothing to see... What am I even looking for? There's nothing but - ..."

That's when her gaze locked onto the white moon in the sky - the _intact,_ full moon.

"Ruby, the moon... It's..." Weiss looked to her partner in disbelief for confirmation that what she was seeing wasn't some trick on the eyes, though Ruby just gave her a sympathetic smile and shrug.

"...Maybe we're not even on Remnant anymore," the leader offered. Then her lips curled into a smug smirk, "But don't worry, I probably made a silly face when I first saw it too."

Catching herself, Weiss wiped away whatever expression she might've had before scowling at Ruby somewhat playfully, "What's _that_ supposed to mean?" Weiss set her gaze upon the white globe in the air again.

Still walking backwards, Ruby's half-smile turned into a genuine grin. Then her mouth opened to say something more, until she took another step while, unbeknownst to her, the bottom of her cape happened to already have been stuck under her foot. With a yelp, Ruby fell hard onto her back, and an unsuspecting heiress came crashing down upon her.

"Ow! Ruby, what are you doing!"

"Sorry, sorry! I tripped over my- "

"Aaand that's my cue to leave," Roman chaffed as Weiss rose and scoffed while dusting herself off, forgetting to lend a hand for her partner to stand. "You just can't stop falling for the Ice Queen, can you? Do try not to keep each other up all night. We have work to do tomorrow." Roman had already turned to leave but stopped to send them a knowing smirk, "Oh, and Red?"

"Yeah?" Ruby said, lifting herself to her feet.

"Sleep well..." he finished before continuing on his way back to his cabin. Ruby mulled over his words for a thoughtful moment, and let out a quiet gasp as her eyes widened.

Weiss glared at the con artist for a few seconds as he went, "What was that about?"

Ruby spared her partner a timid glance, meeting blue eyes before turning away and abstaining from eye contact, "Well, uhh... with everything that's happened this week, we didn't get a chance to make another bed for whoever the new person was going to be..."

"And...?" Weiss noticed a hint of a red shading on Ruby's cheeks.

"And... so we only have two beds in our cabin between you, me, and Yang..."

Weiss's eyes sharpened slightly, as this was surely going to be a problem because she was definitely _not_ going to sleep on the floor tonight.

Confused, Nora peered between the two of them, and her eyes lit up with an idea, "Oh, I know! Why don't you two just share a bed!"

The partners looked to each other, trading uncertain glances.

* * *

 _So, in regards to Yang's PTSD/depression after the Fall of Beacon, my headcanon is that she's going to have PTSD no matter what. But when it comes to her depression, I think that it was almost entirely caused by Blake abandoning her. The fact that Blake left when she needed her most really fucked her up. So if the concept of 'Blake abandons her' is replaced by 'Blake is taken from her' then I think Yang would be a lot more aggressive and she would have a sense of restlessness instead of feeling depressed by being abandoned by yet another person she cared about._

 _That being said, I'm super excited about the next chapter!_

 _And again, thanks for reading! Totally let me know what you think so far!_


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